Chapter 430: The Veteran Pirates All Know
Wu Heng's gaze fell on the spot Qi Hancai pointed out.
The local military district was located near the southern edge of the city, practically at the map's end.
If they started from the train station beneath their feet, they'd have to traverse the entire city.
The zombies along the way would likely take quite some time to clear out.
"For now, we've identified these two critical areas. If we find any other special locations, we'll keep gathering information," Qi Hancai said.
Gold and weapons were currently the most needed items.
Other shops and items could be collected while clearing zombies along the way.
"Alright, let's first plan a route to the gold stores. The military district is a bit far," Wu Heng said.
Qi Hancai nodded, tracing a line roughly along the road outside the station. "This road works. Once it's cleared, other shelters can use it to trade supplies, saving us quite a bit of trouble."
The train station and the commercial district were both key locations.
The main road connected them, so they just needed to follow it.
"That works." Wu Heng agreed with the plan and continued asking, "How many solid iron rounds have been prepared?"
Qi Hancai rolled up the map and replied, "We've currently transported over 300 crates, and the train will keep bringing more."
With the addition of magical forges, the production efficiency of solid iron rounds had greatly improved.
Once produced, they were packed into crates according to specifications.
Each crate contained 1,000 rounds.
This made them easier to transport and track usage.
300 crates of solid iron rounds were more than enough for the upcoming battles.
They had never fought a battle with such abundant supplies before.
Once their position stabilized, they could order a few more magical forges to further improve production efficiency.
"Have the train bring a few skeleton dogs next time it returns."
"Understood." Qi Hancai nodded.
After discussing the subsequent plans,
Qi Hancai took Wu Heng downstairs for a walkthrough.
In addition to the ticket hall and office rest area they initially secured, all spaces had been properly organized.
Work and rest areas were separated, and survivors were assigned to different locations based on their roles.
By modern construction standards, it was fully functional for their needs.
After completing the tour and ensuring there were no changes needed,
Wu Heng returned to his room.
He opened the gateway and returned to Gold-Silver Island.
...…
Gold-Silver Island.
After dinner, Wu Heng trained with his two maids in the courtyard.
Recently, swordsmanship practice had significantly decreased.
It wasn't due to laziness.
Rather, the past few tasks required him to be at sea, and training was inconvenient aboard the ship day and night.
As a mage, having some melee combat skills was a valuable trump card.
When facing Kranmu, the opponent didn't expect him to pick up a sword and chase him down.
Thus, it was best to keep such skills under wraps in front of others.
Holding the [Instructor's] longsword, he performed one swordsmanship move after another.
Compared to when he first started, he now executed these movements with much greater ease.
[Swordsmanship Proficiency upgraded to (Intermediate).]
The system notification appeared during his fifth round of practice.
Swordsmanship proficiency had finally reached the intermediate level.
It might not seem high, but for swordsmen or blade warriors, it often required years of training to attain.
This corresponded to a level above ten.
For someone like Wu Heng, who started practicing later and was a mage, achieving this level in such a short time was quite satisfactory.
He wiped away the sweat and put away the artifact in his hand.
Taking a deep breath, he waited for the two maids to finish their training, then they returned to their rooms to rest together.
...…
The next day, in the zombie world.
On the main road leading to the commercial district,
abandoned vehicles were piled up in a jam. Ruined buildings looked like wreckage, with shattered glass, claw marks, and blood stains everywhere.
Dense zombie hordes poured out from side streets, forming a black tide on the main road, roaring and clawing as they chased after a skeleton hunting dog sprinting ahead with its tail tucked.
Ahead of them, the skeleton army formed tightly packed ranks.
Wu Heng stood behind the skeletons, watching the dark mass of zombies trample the snow-covered ground as they rapidly approached.
He donned an additional mask to block the spreading stench.
Turning to the side, he said, "Send out the skeleton wyvern!"
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~!
Skeleton wyvern flew forward from the sky.
They reached the area above the zombie horde.
Dense solid iron rounds rained down like a storm.
They blanketed the entire road below.
Boom, boom, boom~!
Deafening explosions erupted, sending smoke billowing.
The wyverns returned.
The explosions attracted more zombies, which continued converging on the road.
Another wave of zombie tides formed.
Stepping over the debris of limbs and meat, they charged forward once more.
"The wyverns are reloading their ammunition," came Qi Hancai's voice through the walkie-talkie.
At the rear of the formation,
dozens of people were busy reloading the skeleton wyvern' ammunition.
After a flurry of activity, the wyverns took flight again, reaching the zombie horde above.
Solid iron rounds were once again unleashed.
Explosions resounded once more.
The road was briefly cleared, but soon another wave of zombies gathered.
However, this time the horde was noticeably thinner than before.
The skeleton wyvern made four successive sorties.
As the reverberations subsided and the smoke dissipated,
a battered road was revealed, with collapsed cars and barely-standing ruins on either side.
On the pothole-riddled, blood-soaked street, a few dismembered zombies continued to crawl forward.
"Suspend the skeleton wyvern," Wu Heng ordered via the walkie-talkie, then commanded the front line, "Skeleton army, advance."
Clatter, clatter, clatter~!
The skeleton army surged forward.
They cleared zombies along their path.
...…
The last zombie was skewered like a twisted pretzel.
Silence enveloped the world.
The howling wind diluted the stench in the air.
Skeletons began cleaning up the battlefield and collecting special corpses.
Several modified trucks and buses rolled onto the street, unloading survivors who began looting and transporting supplies from nearby stores.
Even clothing and general goods stores were scavenged.
In the newly established base, everything had utility.
Wu Heng opened his interface to check.
[Level: 15 (117,573/195,000)]
That morning, they had pushed from the station to this point.
The results were impressive.
His experience points had increased by over 70,000—an astonishing amount.
With just two or three more horde battles, he could reach level 16.
At that moment,
several special corpses were dragged over.
Among them were two mutated zombies: a brute and a crawler, both second-tier aberrants.
There were also over two hundred evolved zombies.
However, many of the evolved zombies were heavily damaged, with only heads or upper bodies remaining.
They looked rather pitiful.
Wu Heng cast [Raise Skeleton], converting the corpses into skeletons.
In total, he obtained two second-tier zombie cores and 75 first-tier zombie cores.
After storing them all,
he continued casting [Battlefield of the Dead] along the way. Skeletons rose from the carnage and began cleaning the battlefield, clearing the road.
By the time the entire stretch was processed,
a dense crowd of skeletons filled the road.
With the current number of skeletons, the safety of the new shelter was assured.
Once the skeletons were fully converted,
Qi Hancai approached with a small group of people.
Each person carried a backpack.
"These are the gold bars recovered from nearby jewelry stores—about 150 to 160 kilograms in total."
Wu Heng felt a surge of joy.
It seemed that the jewelry stores in Anhui City were more lucrative than those in his own area.
They had gathered quite a haul.
"Good, leave them on the steps here," Wu Heng instructed.
After the group departed, he stored everything away.
Qi Hancai continued, "This area can't be fully looted in a day or two. We'll need skeletons to guard it. Once we've cleared enough, we can open it up and let other shelters use the road for trade."
"Alright. I'll have Big Head Skeleton assist you in organizing things. We can also consider admitting some additional survivors." Wu Heng said.
"Understood."
The two discussed the details for a while.
Leaving Qi Hancai in charge of the area, Wu Heng took a car back to the station.
From his room, he opened the gateway and returned to Gold-Silver Island.
...…
Back at his residence,
as Wu Heng came downstairs, Minnie informed him that the pirate girl had sent a message.
It had only been two days since Philipa left, and she was already contacting him again.
Heading to the third-floor room,
Wu Heng first checked the records in the radio log. After confirming that Philipa had indeed tried to reach him, he picked up the microphone and asked, "Philipa, are you there?"
"I'm here." Philipa's voice came through. "What were you doing this morning?"
Wu Heng replied, "I was busy with some work. Is there something urgent?"
Philipa's voice grew excited. "I found some information about the pirate maps!"
"So soon?"
"I just casually asked around and got something, but I'm not sure how accurate it is," Philipa said hesitantly.
"Let's hear it!"
Philipa pondered for a moment before speaking again, "They say the veteran pirate crews, including the Devil's Hand you defeated earlier, all believed in the existence of the Pirate King's treasure. They've been searching for it based on maps."
They all believed?
This meant there was a chance it was real.
"I didn't find any such map on the Devil's Hand captain," Wu Heng said.
"How would I know? Maybe he didn't carry it with him. Just listen to the rest," Philipa continued. "Until the appearance of blank envelopes, the veteran pirate crews stopped searching for the treasure and began acting according to the envelopes' instructions."